Basic Pumpkin Pie in England

Happy Halloween! Well Happy season of anyway. Pumpkin pies are very American and the only ones I’ve ever eaten have been in America so I’ve they have been of the very sweet variety. Therefore, in order to source a recipe I went straight to Martha Stewart and the various other classic American cooks. I did however then realise I live in England so don’t have quite the same ingredients so I’ve done a cheat’s version. It does taste rather good though.

Ingredients:

Either buy some shortcrust frozen pastry or make your own

If you make your own you need:

1 and 1/3 cup plain flour

½ tsp salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp cold water

Method:

1. Combine the ingredients and put in cling film in the freezer for 30 minutes
2. Press the pastry into a greased tin of your choice
3. Put in the fridge

Filling Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 can evaporated milk

1 can pumpkin filling (if you can’t get in the supermarket you can buy online https://amzn.to/3S17QHE)

½ cup white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger (powdery stuff)

1-2 ground cloves (be careful not to add more or it can taste like medicine)

Method:

1. Beat the eggs and then add everything else
2. Pour the mix into the pastry case from the fridge
3. Bake for 15 minutes at 325F
4. Bake for 45 minutes at 350F
5. Store in the fridge

Sorry for the American temperate measurements but it was an American recipe.

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Wedding Post Box

The wedding prep continues.. This weekend’s task was a Wedding Post Box in order to hopefully hold any lovely cards we get from our wedding guests.

I will completely own this though as a cheat. I thought about making one and then I saw the prices of the ones to buy and the vary between £10 and £50! I came to a compromise of buying a kit on eBay and customising it to the colour theme of the wedding. As with all of my wedding blogs I won’t spoil the end result but will do that post wedding but hopefully you can see enough of it and see how you can make something fairly cheaply but special.

This is the kit. It comes flat packed with the cut-out pieces still in their single sheet ready to push out.

If you want one similar here’s a link:

https://amzn.to/3S18bKq

My next decision was colour. The wedding colour themes are duck egg blue and rose gold so that’s what I went with. I choose some acrylic blue in a matte and some shiny metallic rose gold which i then used on a whole range of wedding crafts for consistency.

So using some PVC glue I stick the letters and trim; painted the core box in blue and the trim in gold.

Basic Homemade Hot Sauce

My other half work’s in an office with large glass windows. One of things his team decided to go was grow chillies using the heat as we don’t get much if that in England so it was acting as a mini greenhouse. After the summer had passed he came home one day with a massive collection of chillies. Some of them were small and they were all different colours. We decided we’d use them up in something we loved which was hot sauce. We found some funky skeleton jars in a local shop thinking these would give the perfect scary appearance as we wanted the sauce to be super hot.

Ingredients:

5 different types of fresh chilli

Handful jalapeno style chillies

2 cans of chopped tomatoes

1 whole clove of garlic chopped up very small

1 tablespoon of salt and pepper

1 squeeze of tomato puree

1 squeeze of garlic puree

1 cup of water

1 tablespoon dried onion flakes

1 tablespoon dried habanero chilli flakes

1 large onion diced finely

1 tablespoon white sugar

50 ml white wine vinegar

Method:

1. Slightly soften the onion and garlic in a pan
2. Add them and everything else to a slow cooker
3. Cook on low for 6 hours
4. Bottle in sterilised jars
5. Store in the fridge as it doesn’t have preservatives ib

Now we love the type of hot sauce that is sweet but wanted to start out fairly simply so I think next time we’ll add a whole bottle of honey and see where that takes us.

I used some old hot sauce jars but you can buy them:

https://amzn.to/3fQx6Tx

Update on Wedding Confetti

Our wedding is getting closer, so the wedding planning and crafting is getting much more serious, and my organisational skills need to kick in. Earlier in the year when the flowers were in bloom I collected and dried lots of petals (see link to blog below) and now I’m moving onto making these actual wedding confetti. I saw a really fab picture on Pinterest for wedding cones made from lace and stored in what looks like an apple crate. My father-in-law to be is a really good wood craftsman so I’ll share some of the other items he’s making for the wedding in future but in light of that he’s agreed to make us the box to store them (see picture below). Post wedding so I don’t spoil the reveal I’ll share a picture of the full box.

So then I needed the lace cones. I bought some paper dollies from the local pound store. By cutting them in half and gluing them together you can make a good cone. If you use two layers and insert one into another you get a stronger and prettier lace effect. I sealed the front with a sticker which I got personalised from a store on eBay with our wedding married names.

The plan closer to the time is to then pour a small amount of my dried petals into each cone and the place the cones in the box and voila.. hopefully homemade wedding confetti (and we should have a nice apple crate/box to keep forever).

I’ll update after the wedding with final photographs.

Some materials to buy to copy this:

Wooden Crate

https://amzn.to/3CCfPp8

Doilies

https://amzn.to/3fTHHNy

Personalised Stickers

https://amzn.to/3Mr0fkC

Cheat’s Mulled Wine Recipe

It’s almost time for the annual Christmas markets in Manchester. Every year we attend and every year I spend a ridiculous amount on buying the cups as they have the year of the market on them. I have almost 10 cups, however I do love a good mulled wine. Now apart from buying my favourite flavour gluwein I have on occasion made it home (using the cups bought from the special market). Making mulled wine can be as elaborate or complicated as you like.

The simplest method is buy it! Simply go to a good Marks & Spencer’s supermarket and buy it.

Option 2, which probably yields the easiest results are to buy a bottle of good quality red wine. It doesn’t have to be expensive but don’t buy the really watery stuff. Then you can buy mulled wine spice mix (see picture below) and sprinkle some spoons of it in a pan with some of the red wine and warm through (don’t boil as you can boil off the alcohol). You can make it more elaborate by adding a few chopped oranges; lemons or a sprinkle of sugar and it’s starts to look a lot more homemade.

Option 3 which is where I am now is to make your own spice mix. I have a jar that I keep and use each year topping up and refreshing each year with a mix of:

• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Nutmeg
• Ground all spice
• Ginger
• Brown sugar
• Dried orange and lemon peel

Basically put all your classic Christmas spices in a jar and mix it up. If you particularly like cinnamon add more of that or you hate ginger then leave it out. If you prefer your it sweet then a little more sugar. Don’t put too much sugar though as you can always add that later once you’ve tasted your mix in your red wine as your wine of choice will make it taste different each time.

Option 4 which is the final flourish is to then a large or very large splash of your favourite spirit such as honey rum; cherry brandy or even chocolate liqueurs. This is dangerous element as you can make your mulled wine so alcoholic you only manage a glass full!

Some links if you want to copy this recipe:

Pre-made

https://amzn.to/3T0Ez11

Cheat’s Spice Mix

https://amzn.to/3T0EpXt

Nice cups to drink from

https://amzn.to/3CuRvp0